The story was written by Roy Thomas, drawn by John Buscema and inked by Joe Sinnott. While the story was basically about The Black Panther being jailed by the apartheid country of South Africa and the Fantastic Four coming to his rescue, Thomas “sanitized” it by changing the name and giving a fake name for the country, adding bad guys and a super villain and when the Thing smashes the segregated water fountains at the end the signs above the fountains are “Colored” and “Europeans”. I guess if he used real names, changed the sign from “European” to “White” and kept the super villain out of the story they’d be afraid of losing sales on the south. After all, this was published in 1972.

By my teens I’d learn more about world problems from school, books and TV, but at age 11 this ¢20 comic book taught me a lot.